You choose the title!! My mind is tired!!
July 1st (D minus 10)
How
should I title this blog? Here are a few
titles that passed through my head during the night while I was snatching sleep
from wakefulness:
The
Cows Came Home
Night
of the Cows
Cows
and Effect
Martha
Pays a Visit
The
Bells Toll at NDO
The
“Sleep is Optional” Lifestyle
Max
Comes Home, Martha Goes Home!
Go! Cows! Go!
(Homage to Dr. Seuss)
Hoofprints
on the Bottle!!
Muka
Sikutanta versus Martha
It is highly possible you might be able to guess how the
night went for us from the titles I suggested.
That would only be scratching the surface. Let me begin with a little background, and an
incident earlier in the day Sunday.
Blu was
conducting the Sunday morning Bible study for NDO. His lesson was on humility. He was about half way through when I hear the
distinct sound of cow bells coming from behind the children’s dormitories. Soon several head of cattle emerge from the
far side of the house. I sprang to my
feet, pursuing them, throwing rocks and babbling incoherent things that I am
told spur cows to action. One of my
rocks struck the tin roof of the boy’s dormitory, and the cows headed for the
brush. Cows can be devious, so I knew
they would skirt along the fence to the NDO Entrance road and renew their
attack on our compound and our vegetation.
So I proceeded to the main road, and sure enough, a couple was starting
to emerge. Upon seeing my stern visage
and hearing my dubiously effective babbling they turn tail off of the
property. But a few remained in the
high brush (6 feet high) walking along the fence attempting to evade harassment. Unwilling to wade into the brush and meet the
enemy on his/her terms, I returned to the ciicuta and the Bible study. Eventually those cows gave up trying to hide
(like I can’t hear an 800 lb steer moving around in the tall grass) and left
the property.
Lynne and I have been going to bed no later
than 9 PM since our day starts 6-6:30 a.m. every morning. Around 11 p.m. we hear the hooves of cattle
just outside our hut’s door, and the staccato sound of cowbells. Lynne springs from the bed (in the manner of
the father in “The Night Before Christmas”,
and pursues the cattle with a vengeance.
I succumbed to sleep for about 30 minutes before I heard purring and
felt movement on the bed. It took me a
while to realize it wasn’t Lynne purring and that she had been out pursuing
cows for quite a long time. I picture
her tied up in the bush, surrounded by cows who were demanding the key to the
food cellar. So in the interest of my
wife, I went to the door to look for her.
I could see her flashlight over by the dormitories (remember where this
adventure started in the morning?) moving back toward the hut. Soon she was back at the hut exclaiming, “It
was the same cows from this morning; I recognized their faces!” Now she might not have said exactly those
words, but I can’t remember exactly what she said. It was about that time that
we heard the bells across the compound from us but they seemed to be moving
away from NDO. So I convinced Lynne that
the cows were in retreat and that advancing on them at this late hour would be
futile. We went off to bed thinking no
more of the combative cattle of Zambia.
Around
1:30 AM we heard a noise near our door and kitchen. It sounded like something searching for
food. We knew it wasn’t Nala or Max
because they were outside. Lynne sat up
and said, “I think we have a mouse!” I
told her that the mouse sounded like it was outside and very large. She rose from bed, threw open the door, and
was confronted with Martha the Milk Cow standing on the porch with her son Bud(300
pound calf). Lynne shrieked, and said “
Oh my! there is a cow right on the front porch, and it’s Martha!” She said “Martha” rather accusingly as if
Martha was a wanted felon who had wandered onto our porch. My mind conjured images of that innocent
black face with an expression of hurt splayed across her big head. I sprang
from the bed, dressed and began discussing how we could get these two AWOL
bovine back to their pen. Lynne headed off to find a rope to lasso them, while
I took a different method. Being a lover
of milk and milk products I have a certain soothing voice when addressing the
producers of that which I crave. With
careful steps and loving words I herded Martha and Bud in the direction of
their pen. I could hear Bud chortling in
the darkness, “Mom I told you they weren’t expecting us!” They started walking slowly toward their pen,
and sensing Lynne in the distance broke into a run for the cow corral. With some agitated urging from Lynne they both
entered the corral and began to look around innocently as if they didn’t know
it was wrong to be outside the corral.
While
Lynne worked to somehow block the entrance to the corral so Martha could not
escape again, I looked up to the waxing moon in the eastern sky and detected the
sound of water cascading to the ground. The tank that supplies water for our
hut and the kitchen was overflowing. We
proceeded victoriously in the dark to where the shut off valve is for filling
our tank. The staccato sound of water
striking the ground was ringing in our ears.
The valve to fill our tank was closed, so there was nothing left to
do. Wait!!! Lynne wants to wake up Wes and tell him at 2
a.m. that our tank is overflowing? I
convinced her of the folly of disturbing Papa Wes in the middle of the night
over something that could wait until the light of day. It is amazing how convincing I can be when a
warm hut and bed are calling.
What did
I forget? While we were putting the cows
back in the pen, a Siamese cat emerged from the darkness. It was Max.
We had not seen him in a couple of days. He followed us back to the hut
and had a midnight snack (actually a 2 am snack) with Nala on our front
porch. It was then we noticed the hoof
print on our bottle of dish washing soap.
Thanks Martha!!!
As I
type this Lynne is off milking Martha, if Bud hasn’t sucked her dry
overnight. We usually keep them
separate, because he will drink every golden drop of that delicious milk she produces. Max and Nala are sleeping off the adventure
with the cow hoard invasion. Off in the
distance I can hear cowbells clanking.
They are back for another round!! This time they don’t have stealth on their
side!!! The sun is up. I need to go gather some rocks and prepare to
engage the enemy. Wait, stray pig in the
yard. Off to engage the swine!!!
Lynne -I knew Wes rose early so I went to
his house first thing this morning to get his help in returning Bud to his
corral as I could not see a way in or out of that place. Wes and I were kinda
celebrating that Martha looked like she still had some milk after her night
with Bud. We got him put back in his corral and I milked Martha. I was able to get about a gallon of
milk. All was going well until I
released Martha from the milking stall and she took two steps backward and
stuck her head in the pail of milk and spilled it all on the floor of the
dairy. I think I will go hide under the
covers until the rest of this day is over. Which may prove difficult since it
is only 8am.
Sikutanta
back typing. It is a double holiday here
in Zambia. Today is Heroes Day and
tomorrow is Unity day. So, things will move
a bit slower here at NDO today. We will
still get some work done, but with less urgency and less help.
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